The 60s saw the first real uprising of the young. I made my way around Occupy Providence to find out what they were protesting. The person at the information desk said, “There are so many problems…” Never was a truth so eloquently and succinctly put.

Occupy Providence isn’t about just one issue — although the current economy dominates. They have assembled a list — like Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses that he nailed to the church doors that started the Protestant movement. In this case, Occupy has a list of issues that they are protesting in turn. And the young are inspiring the old. I talked to a retiree who is insulin-dependant and is braving the conditions to join the cause. He has built his shelter against the oncoming winter conditions and the famous “wind-tunnel” in the Kennedy Plaza area and has his camp stove and cooking gear going.

Since my blog focuses on the place (or lack) of technology in culture, I asked folks around there if it fit in with this very “survivalist” enviornment. I wandered amid tents, camp stoves, but I found signs of modern life. At the main tents set up; they depend on a computer, very limited and unreliable bandwidth, and a broken printer in need of replacing. This is all powered off of a gas generator. When that goes down, they power it off a bicycle that a volunteer pedals to generate electricity. Steampunk at its finest.

They say that they are the 99% of the country that are among the struggling, suffering masses fighting what Wall Street has done to Main Street. The first Occupy embodied what the country needs to do. Pull together instead of turning on one another.

Unfortunately, it looks like the 99% forgot to get approval from the city of Providence. An article in Boston.Com says that the city is planning to evict the protesters from Burnside Park. I’m wondering if the pledge for non-violence will prevail. I’m wondering how many folks will choose arrest and imprisonment rather than to comply with the eviction order once it comes through.